A Terran Trade Authority Handbook. Full color reprint of the original books by Stewart Cowley.

About

No one would have believed, in the closing years of the 1970’s, that science fiction was to experience a boom that would last through to the present day. The summer blockbuster had only just been invented. There was only one Star Wars movie. The voyage of the Battlestar Galactica had only just begun, and Buck Rogers had yet to conquer television. But between the pages of the Terran Trade Authority handbooks, enthralled readers were discovering a beautiful and brightly-coloured vision of the future, where wondrous spacecraft explored strange planets, navigated shimmering nebulae and fought desperate battles among the stars. Illustrated by some of the world’s greatest science fiction artists and written by Stewart Cowley, the handbooks told the tale of mankind’s expansion into the unknown and the trials and wonders they encountered. Conceived of as a “Jane’s Guide” for the future, the books made use of the stunning artwork produced for the paperback science fiction market at the time, reproducing them in lush colour and on glossy paper. Beginning with Spacecraft 2000-2100 AD in 1978, the Terran Trade Authority series went on to become a cult phenomenon, loved and fondly remembered by all who came across them. The Terran Trade Authority presented a bright vision of the future, optimistic about man's place in the universe, and featuring a strong undercurrent of mystery, wonder and adventure. In recent years the volumes have become collectors’ items – expensive and rarely found, but never forgotten - and have gone on to influence creators around the globe. The setting has spawned two role-playing games and has been cited as a clear inspiration for the best-selling computer game No Man's Sky. Within the pages of the books are a veritable who’s who of science fiction art, including such names as Jim Burns, Alan Daniels, Peter Elson, Fred Gambino, Colin Hay, Robin Hiddon, Bob Layzell, Angus McKie, Chris Foss, Chris Moore, Tony Roberts, and Trevor Webb. Now, with your help, we are proud to present a special 40th Anniversary Edition of the first of the TTA handbooks; Spacecraft 2000-2100 AD. It’s time to return to the future!

ACM 113, Fatboy

About Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD

The Terran Trade Authority is an original science-fiction setting first presented in four large-format full-colour illustrated books, published between 1978 and 1980. Each book is presented as an “in-universe” document, detailing the history of the Terran Trade Authority and their spectacular spacecraft. This book covers the events immediately before and after the Proximan War Era, and is presented in the same manner as an aircraft recognition guide, made up entirely of spacecraft descriptions and art accompanied by details of their role and performance in the war, and occasionally their history afterwards.

Nomad Industrial Complex

Foreword to Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD: 40th Anniversary Edition

During the heady days of the Russian-American space race and the globally televised Apollo missions, the world watched enthralled as humans took the first faltering steps beyond gravity’s grip. But as time passed public enthusiasm waned. The value and relevance of space research and its huge costs were questioned In the face of global social, political and economic pressures. But eventually, popular interest in space exploration re-emerged. A major imperative was the growing awareness of Planet Earth’s fragility in the face of the demands we made on it. However successful we were in conserving our world’s resources and developing new forms of energy, the fact remained that we were simply outgrowing our homeworld. The search for Earth-like planets and the technology to travel there became of paramount importance. The post-Apollo drop in popular enthusiasm for space research did not mean that the scientific community relaxed their search for answers. On the contrary, a growing number of major players brought fresh resources to the table. In addition to NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, China, Japan, India, the European Space Agency and even private enterprise grew our knowledge base. Not just in how we would travel in space but where we might go. A major contributor was NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. Launched in 2009 to seek out exoplanets – planets beyond our own solar system – Kepler soon identified over 1000 of them. Only a dozen or so were Earth-like, as to qualify, planets could not be much larger than twice Earth’s size and therefore rocky, in order to increases the probability of surface water. Such planets also had to orbit the ‘habitable zone’ of its sun where the average temperature allowed water to exist in liquid form. Identifying the ‘Where’ brought us to the ‘How’, the greatest challenge of all. Entirely new aspects of astrophysics had to explored and manipulated for interstellar travel to become a reality. The strongest contenders were forms of Warp Drive where the space-time continuum, the actual fabric of space, is distorted. Work by NASA’s Dr. Harold ‘Sonny’ White made significant advances in Warp Drive technology using advanced Quantum Optics to create a space-time bubble around a craft that would enable it to move independently from the rest of space. By compressing space-time in front of the vessel and expanding it behind, faster-than-light speeds became possible. The key point in making interstellar travel a reality came about in 2012 with the founding of the 100 YSS (100 Year Star Ship Project) funded initially by NASA and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). The formation of Icarus Interstellar in 2011 and its Starship Congress of 2013 combined with the introduction of Brane Cosmology took faster-than-light (FTL) research to a new level. The creation of the Terran Trade Authority harnessed global research and made Warp Drive systems and our journey to the stars a reality.

~ CMDR Stewart Cowley Terran Trade Authority

Colonial III, Angus McKie

Book Specs

Author and Artist: Stewart Cowley and company (this book will contain all the original artwork)

Size: the print book will be a 8.5 x 11 book, either in softcover or hardcover, depending on your choice.

Layout: New layout will be done by J Gray.

40th Anniversary logo is by Ian Stead

Stretch Goals

$15,000 - Terran Trade Authority RPG sourcebook for the Cepheus Engine (Mongoose Traveller 1e) in PDF. A POD version will be made available for purchase should we reach this stretch goal.

It's a "shipping not included" Kickstarter, with Battlefield Press planning to organise shipping and collect shipping fees via BackerKit after the end of the Kickstarter.

There are various backer levels between $20 and $500. I'm not going to go into them all here, so go over and look at the Kickstarter.

As I write this, the Kickstarter has already raised $2,119, on it's first day, with 38 days to go to raise the rest of the $12,000 for the base goal (or the $15,000 for the additional PoD sourcebook).

Has anyone got the original Terran Trade Authority books? What do you think of the original Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD? The book is going to be $20 as a PDF, $35 as a softcover book (and PDF) and $40 as a hardcover book (and PDF), but I didn't notice how many pages they are expecting it to have. How big was the classic version of the book?

Has anyone seen any information, from Battlefield Press, about the proposed stretch-goal book? Is it an old book that would get a new printing or something that never existed before? Has there been any Cepheus Engine TTA books in the past or would this be a new conversion to the 1e Mongoose Traveller rules?

Cepheus Engine's too new to have been involved with the original TTA stuff. The original TTA books were 1978-80, and Cepheus Engine was released in 2016. I believe the original was 96 pages, about half art, much of it cover art from science-fiction novels. Battlefield Press tried to kickstart a Savage Worlds TTA back in 2012, but it failed at $2,114 out of $6,000. That was just an RPG, though, not a reprint, so this may (should) draw more enthusiasm.

We do not anywhere indicate that Cepheus Engine was involved in the original printing, its a Traveller clone, so we thought we would make a stand alone game that actually may appeal to the old school gamer in all of us, and it is a stretch goal and not a primary focus.

We would like to see the reprint of the original books succeed. I think if they do it will be a big win for everyone.

Jonathan M. Thompson
Battlefield Press International | thompsonjm (at) gmail (dot) com |"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere." - Carl Sagan

We do not anywhere indicate that Cepheus Engine was involved in the original printing, its a Traveller clone, so we thought we would make a stand alone game that actually may appeal to the old school gamer in all of us, and it is a stretch goal and not a primary focus.

We would like to see the reprint of the original books succeed. I think if they do it will be a big win for everyone.

Interesting; when I searched for "Terran Trade Authority" on Kickstarter, it only showed the 2012 attempt and the current one. My apologies for unintentionally misleading readers.

I've definitely got this one on my watch list. One of my local library branches had one of the books (and I can't remember which) when I was young, and it would certainly be nice to have a reprint so that it's not as rare of a series.

You know the saying, "no harm, no foul"? I believe it applies in this case.

The purpose of doing reprints is to make the books affordable again for everyone. Cowley and all the artists are extremely excited about the possibility of the reprint. They have been doing nothing but chatting with me about it.

Jonathan M. Thompson
Battlefield Press International | thompsonjm (at) gmail (dot) com |"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere." - Carl Sagan

We do not anywhere indicate that Cepheus Engine was involved in the original printing, its a Traveller clone, so we thought we would make a stand alone game that actually may appeal to the old school gamer in all of us, and it is a stretch goal and not a primary focus.

We would like to see the reprint of the original books succeed. I think if they do it will be a big win for everyone.

Interesting; when I searched for "Terran Trade Authority" on Kickstarter, it only showed the 2012 attempt and the current one. My apologies for unintentionally misleading readers.

I've definitely got this one on my watch list. One of my local library branches had one of the books (and I can't remember which) when I was young, and it would certainly be nice to have a reprint so that it's not as rare of a series.

I really do think that Print on Demand is the way forward with specialist books. They don't necessarily have a large enough audience to justify the risk of large print runs (which are the best way to lower the unit price) and excessive inventory also takes up space and puts distributors off of a product line. But with PoD there are no warehouse costs and a niche product can be made available to fans.

And if one of Battlefield Press's Kickstarter attempts bounced due to lack of funding (before they came back with an adjusted one that works) that would seem to suggest to me that a big attempt at a print run would have burned up all the capital used to try to bring TTA back and left a developer having to abandon the idea because of the risk of throwing more money into it and failing. So I actually think that's great news for Traveller fans as it shows that Jonathan has been able to find the ideal sort of level for being able to bring in enough money to provide fans with the opportunity of bringing something back.

And the fact that he is doing one book and making a second thing into a stretch goal (instead of bundling it in and asking for a higher original goal) means the fanbase are probably more likely to get what they want...even if it takes several other Kickstarters spread over time to get there.

I think that sort of attention to financial detail is essential if less well known RPG products are going to be able to get to the Print on Demand marketplace, and give the hard-core fans the ability to bring new fans onboard.

Anyhoo, the Kickstarter now has 75 backers and has pulled in $3,665 of $12,000. That's pretty impressive for one day. I'll be interested to see if that starts to tail off or not.